Illinois Budget Impasse Holds Disabled Hostage


So far Access Living has been able to avoid laying anyone off, but is running a deficit as a result of the Illinois budget impasse.
So far Access Living has been able to avoid laying anyone off, but is running a deficit as a result of the Illinois budget impasse.

As of late 2015, the state of Illinois had unpaid bills of about $6 billion and a $111 billion pension deficit. The Democrat-controlled legislature cannot reach agreement with Republican Governor Bruce Rauner on a fiscal budget that was supposed to go into effect July 1, 2015, and now many social service agencies are under pressure to reduce services or close altogether.

According to Rahnee Patrick, director of independent living for Chicago-based Access Living, the budget impasse is more serious than usual. Like other such agencies in Illinois, Access Living is not receiving full state funding while the crisis is ongoing, yet is being asked to continue providing services. “At least one CIL has closed, and two more are facing imminent closure,” says Patrick. “The largest social service agency in the state, Lutheran Social Services has had to cut 750 positions statewide. People are not getting the assistance they need.”

Many CILs across the state are having to borrow money on lines of credit to stay open. Access Living has a deficit, but so far has not had to cut staff.

“People with disabilities are not only going without needed services, but on a visceral level it is awful, because we are being made to feel less important, like our lives don’t matter,” says Patrick. “We are dependent on tax-supported, state-funded programs, so we need a budget to be passed.”

So far, personal assistance for those who most need it has not been impacted. Right now the most harm is being done to those who need minimal hours of care, but many cannot live independently without even that minimal assistance.

“The burden falls on their family members to provide the care,” says Patrick. “A person who lives alone and needs care, so far, is not being denied. But those who live with family members are being cut off. Some are people who may have to return to nursing facilities, and that will be at a much greater cost

[to the tax payer].”

Last year the state tried to cut 10,000 recipients of home assistance, but advocates were able to stop that. This year, they fear the state may use the budget impasse to try to make those cuts again.


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